Various methods and devices have been developed over the years for the purpose of teaching or conveying to students concepts ranging from relatively simple to relatively complex subjects. The following invention is described particularly with reference to the teaching of technical subjects such as electronics. However, it will be apparent that similar teaching methods and apparatus may be employed for a wide variety of subjects.
In general, it has been found that, even with students who are eager to learn, a continual presentation of verbal data is often ineffective to convey various concepts to students. This is particularly true of relatively complex subjects with which a student is not familiar.
Professional teachers commonly employ a variety of devices at intervals during presentation of such verbal information to better maintain the students' interest and to facilitate learning. For example, humor is often employed in this manner to spark the interest of the students and make them more receptive to additional verbal information.
Similarly, illustrations are commonly employed in textbooks and films, for example, to accomplish generally the same purpose and also to provide additional information concerning concepts being taught to the students.
Electronic devices have also been employed for teaching purposes to further facilitate an understanding by students of various concepts. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,682 issued Mar. 19, 1985 to Thompson and entitled "Learning Aid With Match and Compare Mode of Operations" described an electronic learning aid capable of synthetic speech. At the same time, the device included means for displaying illustrations to the students, for example, to further facilitate the teaching of various concepts.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,656 issued Mar. 20, 1979 to Podkopsev et al and entitled "Teaching Machine for Studying Foreign and Native Languages" disclosed the use of an electronic programming device for presenting verbal data relating to foreign and native languages for example.
These patents are believed generally representative of the prior art available to date for teaching a wide variety of subjects. In particular, the prior art devices employ electronic processing units generally for presenting data similar to that available in the past in conventional forms such as textbooks.
However, even with the various improvements in teaching methods and apparatus available to data, there has been found to remain a need for further improvements in order to assure a more complete understanding by the student.